2023 IWSG Word for the Year, TikTok and Planetary Arc and Alignment

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. 

These are the co-hosts for January 2023’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh, Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre and T. Powell Coltrin. 

Be sure to stop by their sites and give them some love for all their hard work! 

January 4 question - Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year?  Why? 

Harvest. 

It’s time. It's harvest time. It’s time to reap what I’ve sown. 

Harvest.

This is the year a lot of things are coming to fruition. It’s important people realize when to reap. If you wait too long, then your harvest will either be stolen or rot away in the fields. 

TikTok Well I’ve taken the plunge and opened a couple TikTik accounts. I have one video so far but will binge record and bunch of videos this week probably simple fun silly dumb stuff relating to digital marketing that is lighthearted. 

I’m userStephenTremp and userStephen_Tremp. 

One will be digital marketing stuff and the other the lifestyle of a digital marketer. Not sure which one will be which I’ll decide later this week. I’m still new at this. 

If you’re on TikTok send me an invite and I’ll respond! 

Did You Know Although the planets never were and never will be in perfect alignment, all 8 planets (poor Pluto) lined up Christmas Eve on an elliptical arc. On a good night you can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter (along with 4 of its’ moons) and Saturn with the naked eye which happened December 28th Reference. 

This takes into consideration this is a generous alignment or arc. Really tight arcs and alignments like 1 degree make these extremely rare events. But that's okay. We'll enjoy the arcs and alignments during our lifetime just the same. 

Enjoy!

Fun Fact The last time all 9 planets align including Pluto were in alignment (just not perfect alignment) was July 4, 2020. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune plus the dwarf planet Pluto all lined up on one side of the Sun at the same time. 

Question What is your 2003 Word for the Year?

Are you on TikTok and if so what do you do? What's your username?

Do you have an interest in fascinating scientific and astronomical stuff you'd like me to post on in 2004?

IWSG April 2022 and CassaDark

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for April 2022’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of co-hosts: Jemima Pett, Joylene Nowell Butler, Patricia Josephine , Louise Fundy Blue and Kim Lajevardi. 

Be sure to stop by their sites and give them some love for all their hard work! 

April 6 question - Have any of your books been made into audio books? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook? 

No. But it’s on my list of things I really want to do very soon. You can buy text to speech software or pay someone from Fiverr to do the same. I would need at least one male and one female who could do multiple characters. I’m not sure if text to speech software can do that, hoping I can find out more by visiting your blogs this week. 

 

And now onto great news as Alex J. Cavannaugh releases the fourth book in is CassaStar series titled Cassadark. 

“Cavanaugh returns to the world of his Cassa Series…for a fourth inventive space opera.” – Publisher’s Weekly 

His world is unraveling… 

Bassan’s father is stepping down from command. His best friend almost dies when Bassan freezes. Now, he’s being sent across the galaxy to speak at an important conference. Despite saving the eleven races years ago, he’s paralyzed by doubt. Could things get any worse? 

Once there, new acquaintance Zendar convinces Bassan to visit his planet for a humanitarian mission. Bassan’s special connection to ancient technology is the key to saving Zendar’s people. One problem though—it’s a prisoner planet. 

On Ugar, he discovers things aren’t so straightforward. As each truth reveals itself, the situation grows more desperate. If he can’t find the right answers, he might die along with Zendar’s people. Can Bassan summon the courage to be a hero again? 

Print – 9781939844842 / EBook – 9781939844859 Science Fiction – Adventure/Space Opera/Space Exploration 

Find CassaDark at iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, Scribed, and Goodreads And would love it if you could vote for it on Goodreads’ Can’t Wait Sci-Fi Fantasy of 2022 and mark it Want to Read. 

Finally Be sure to stop by Alex's blog for his Blog Book Tour!!!

October 2021 IWSG and Salem's Daughters

 

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by.

 

I'm posting my IWSG October 2021 blog post (better late than never) here at a new site I'm developing. Stop on by and say hello!

CLICK HERE!

 

 

September 2021 IWSG, 2021 Remaining ComicCon Schedule and Kibbles and Bits

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. Okay I took a much needed hiatus and now I’m back blogging and I couldn’t be happier. 

I’ll be participating in the monthly IWSG as well as revisiting topics regarding science meeting the supernatural. I’ll be posting really cool stuff under these Blasts From the Past: 

• Did You Know 
• Fun Facts 
• Kibbles and Bits 
• Weekend Follies 

I'm developing a brand spanking new Wordpress and Blog and I'd greatly appreciate it if you stopped by and said hello in the Comments that would help me very much.

Please leave your name in the Comments too as the crappy Comments Widget provided is, well ... crappy.

Hope to see you there! 

And if you can recommend a good comment widget I will greatly appreciate it thanks!!!

My New Blog

December 2020 IWSG

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for Deecember 2020’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of co-hosts: Pat Garcia, Sylvia Ney, Liesbet @ Roaming About, Catrina Constantine and Catrina Constantine. 

Be sure to stop by their sites and give them some love for all their hard work! 

December 2 question - Are there months or times of the year that you are more productive with your writing than other months, and why? 

                            Example from Google Images

I’d say no not really. I write when I have time or make time and it’s fairly consistent week to week. I’ve not really monitored my writing but I think I’ll do a digital art journal every day for 2021. 

In the past I used this as an opportunity to work on my Photoshop skills, using images and different fonts from different eras. I have fun with journaling. It's really an overall pop culture fest. Wish I hadn’t stopped now. 

Thanks Alex great question! 

Question Do you journal? If so, how do you do it? 

October 2020 IWSG

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for July 2020’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of co-hosts: Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stow McClure and Gwen Garner.

Be sure to stop by their sites and give them some love for all their hard work! This during what has to be one of the craziest years in recent memory! 

October 7 Question When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like? 

Well I’m a working writer who should take full advantage of NaNoWriMo. I have a terrific outline and a cast of good and motley looking characters consisting of Earthlings and a lot of intergalactic beings each with their unique ways of getting to Earth (although some have already been here all along). Epic character ARCs. And way too many other cool things. 

I just need to rock and roll now and clear out absolutely everything I possibly can. Everything. Taking care of business. No distractions. Then I can focus on getting the first draft completed and sent off to my editor for and this stage is really not for editing but for help with the overall structure and flow of the story. 

50,000 Words Have you ever hit the 50,000 word goal? I have not. But two years I did very well. I don’t remember maybe 30,000 words each time. Sounds about right and I’m damn proud of that! 

Question Are you planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this years? Have you in tha past? Let us know your interactions with NaNoWriMo.

August 2020 IWSG

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for July 2020’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

Be sure to stop by and give them some love!

August 5 Question Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don't write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be." Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn't planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?

I simply write. My books fall under Speculative Fiction, a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with certain elements that do not exist in the real world, often in the context of supernatural, futuristic or other imaginative themes.

I choose nothing in advance. I simply write. My brain is wired to see the world as a place where science and the supernatural meet. They co-exist in harmony.

Sure, our world looks chaotic.

And it is.

But looking at Einstein’s famous equation E=MC2 we see energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. They are equal to each other.

This means some angelic and fallen angelic beings have the authority to switch from a spirit being (energy) to a physical body (mass) we can measure with our five senses, like a human, animal or a grotesque form meant to terrify children and adults alike. Then they can go back to their energy form in less than a blink of an eye.

So that’s my world. And yours. Whether you believe it or not this is the world we live in. It would explain a lot of things we see on the news every day.

Question Do you believe there is more to our lives than what we can measure with our five senses?